Question

[David Sklansky]

If a player moves in in nolimit holdem and you know he absolutely must have two aces or ace king suited, what hand, besides aces, will give you the best chance, head up against him?

[SpaceAce]

Maybe something like 67 suited? Or am I way off?

SpaceAce

[Phat Mack]

There are 4 ways he can have AKs and 6 ways he can have AA, since you have no A or K in your hand. TT wins about 33% against this line up.

If you had KK, then it's 6:2 he has AA and your win rate is less.

This is just a semi-educated guess.

[GuyOnTilt]

The first answer that pops into my head is TT. My second guess would be 88, but my quick (relative term here) mental math says TT.

I'm sure I'm not taking something into consideration, but it's late and I don't want to run any numbers. Maybe tomorrow...

GoT

[dylhead]

Against AA the best hand is J10 suited as long as one of the Aces isn't the same suit
Against AKs the best hand is a pair of Kings

[Warren Whitmore]

AKs

[bigpooch]

There are only a few candidates: consider pairs, AKs and
other suited connectors. Intuitively, KK seems wrong as
now the likelihood of AA is 6:2 now (instead of 6:4 for
other pocket pairs excluding the other aces) as another post
had mentioned.

Here is a list of the reasonable candidates and the equity
values, ignoring some "not so good" hands by looking at the
first two equity values:


hand: equity vs AA; equity vs AKs; overall equity

KK: 0.1805395; 0.6589361; 0.300139
TT: 0.1925093; 0.5406302; 0.331758 (better than JJ, QQ)
88: 0.1953829; 0.5247592; 0.327133 (better than 99)
66: 0.1954247; 0.5230587; 0.326478 (better than 77)
AKs:0.1214051; 0.5; 0.310703
T9s:0.2220425; 0.3798030; 0.28515 (better than KQs,QJs,98s)
65s:0.2249884; 0.3890540; 0.29061 (better than 87s)

Thus, TT has the best equity outside of the other AA. The
answer does seem intuitively appealing and is not at all
surprising.

Now, if you don't have the other Aces, you usually can only
call if the amount you have to contribute (B) divided by
(B+P) where P is the pot size before the call is at least
the overall equity given by the extension of the table
computed above.

[Nottom]

I'm actually a bit surprised that TT was it instead of a lower pair. I figured the straight draws that were possible would knock it down a couple notches (much like 87s out performs 9Ts or TJs against AA).

[Noodles]

I may have seen somewhere that 67s does best against AA.
but since AKs could be the opponents hands i guess this is no good.
Can i chance 67s of different suits to the AKs [img]/images/graemlins/wink.gif[/img]

[Diplomat]

Hi David,

I think something similar to this hand was discussed a short while ago, AA v. any hand. I think (and I tend to agree) that you need a hand that has a six in it, since a small portion of the time AA or AK will make a wheel.

Obviously you would prefer your suits to be different than your opponents.

I think what this comes down to how often will 66 make a set v. how often 65s or 67s will make a hand that beats aces. I lean a bit towards 66 because there is very few ways a set can be counterfitted, but I like 56s or 67s because it is easier to make a straight or flush (compared to 66).

I don't know the math, that's just what I would deduct.

-Diplomat